fungo

Forms

fungo m (plural funghi)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian fongo, plural Old Italian fongi and Old Italian fungi.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin fungus (“mushroom; growth”), which also meant the snuff on a lamp wick.^[4][5][1] DELI and Zingarelli label it a learned word.^[6][7] Nocentini explains the Florentine ⟨u⟩ as the regular outcome of short Latin ⟨ŭ⟩ before ⟨ng⟩, against dialect Old Italian fóngo.^[4] DEI notes that northern and southern dialects often remade the word on the plural ⟨fungi⟩, and that Florentine replaced an older pattern ⟨fóngo⟩, ⟨fungi⟩ with ⟨fungo⟩, ⟨funghi⟩.^[8]

The Latin word survives in Italian and western Romance, Friulian fong, Romansh funsch and Spanish hongo; in France it was replaced by French champignon.^[4][9][8]

The Latin word is probably a loanword from a non-Indo-European language, taken independently into Greek, Latin and Armenian in a form like *sphong-: compare Ancient Greek σπόγγος (spóngos, “sponge”), Ancient Greek σφόγγος (sphóngos) and Old Armenian սունկն (sunkn).^[10][1] Nocentini and DEI place it in a Mediterranean substrate, where the word named spongy growths and was extended to sponges by Aegean seafarers.^[4][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in Salimbene's vernacular fragments from Emilia, 1282–1288, for the plant that grows in damp places.^[2] DELI dates it to 1310 in Z. Bencivenni and to before 1313 in Cecco Angiolieri.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already had fungo delle mosche, a poisonous mushroom used to kill flies, fungo marino for a marine animal, the phrases nascere come un fungo and non valere un fungo “to be worth nothing”, and the word for a crust that vinegar forms on metal.^[2][8] From the 16th century it named the snuff of a wick and a disease of olive trees; in the 19th century it was added for a fleshy growth on the body.^[8] The wick sense is now regional Tuscan: Pascoli wrote faceva il fungo / la lucernina nell'oscura notte.^[11]

Thieves' slang used fungo for a hat.^[12] In modern use the word names the mushroom cloud of a nuclear explosion (fungo atomico), the head of a rail and fungal skin infections, and as an invariable adjective a town that has grown very fast (città fungo).^[7][13][5] English fungo (1562, plural fungas) may come from Italian or Spanish.^[14]

Timeline

• 1282–1288 – Salimbene's vernacular fragments use fungo.^[2]
• 1310 – Z. Bencivenni uses the word.^[6]
• Before 1313 – Cecco Angiolieri uses the word.^[6][5]
• c. 1350 – Fungoso appears in the vernacular Crescenzi.^[6]
• 1562 – English fungas is recorded.^[14]
• Before 1676 – Funghetto is recorded.^[6]
• 1726 – Fungaia “place where mushrooms grow” is recorded.^[6]
• 1865 – Fanfani records Tuscan funghire “to go mouldy”.^[6]
• 1912 – Fungicida “fungicide” is recorded.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A mushroom: the fruiting body of a fungus, usually a stalk topped by a cap, edible or poisonous: andare per funghi, to go mushroom picking.^[5][7][15]
2. (biology) A fungus, a member of the kingdom of fungi, which lack chlorophyll and live as parasites or saprophytes.^[5][11]
3. An object shaped like a mushroom: the rose of a watering can, a mushroom-shaped patio heater;^[5][7][13] fungo atomico, a mushroom cloud.^[5][7][13]
4. (railways) The head of a rail.^[7][15][13]
5. (medicine, colloquial) A fungal skin infection.^[15][13]
6. (regional, Tuscany) The charred knob on a wick.^[11][16]

Adjective

1. (invariable) Grown up very quickly: città fungo, a boom town.^[5][16]

Word family

• fungaia
• funghetto
• funghire
• fungicida
• fungino
• fungoso
• fungosità
• fungaiolo
• antifungico

Related words

• funghicolo
• funghicoltura
• fungiforme
• fungistatico
• fungivoro
• fungoide
• Latin fungus
• Ancient Greek σπόγγος (spóngos)

Usage notes

Crescere or spuntare come i funghi means to spring up quickly and in great numbers.^[5][11][13]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
4. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1735
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
13. ^ a b c d e f Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
14. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
15. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli